Review: Comic Boy review – A comic-inspired auto-runner

Hopping between comic book panels feels like an ingenious premise for a video game, but it’s hardly new.

Comix Zone did it to great effect in a 1995 Mega Drive beat-’em-up, while more recently Framed (as well as its sequel) and Gorogoa applied the trick to the mobile puzzler genre.

Comic Boy’s application of this idea to the well-worn autorunner doesn’t feel as fresh as those games, but nor is it as well executed.

Let’s not draw this out

Comic Boy is a classic autorunning platformer, whereby our young protagonist scoots between comic book panels from top left to bottom right.

When he hits the end of the row of panels, Comic Boy turns and runs back the other way. It’s on you to jump him over or duck him under hazards, and to locate the point at which he can drop through to the next level.